January 26, 2008

Elizabeth Crook's The Night Journal

Meg Mabry has always felt oppressed by her family's legendary past. In the 1890's her great-grandmother Hannah Bass wrote revealing diaries of her life on the southwestern frontier, Hannah's daughter published these accounts, creating an American literary landmark, and cementing her career as a renowned historian in the process.

Meg, however, in rebellion against the imperious Bassie, has refused until now to read her great-grandmother's journals. But when the elderly Bassie returns to New Mexico, Meg concedes to accompany her--and soon everything they believed about the family is turned upside down.

Some observations, and many, many questions:

1) It had never occurred to me that one could be oppressed by a family's legendary past given that the past of my family isn't legendary.

Does this mean that if we 'tell the story' of achieving our dreams, our daughters will view this story as a burden rather than a gift?

2) As a follow-on, because my college degree is from a 2nd-tier university, it hadn't occurred to me that someone with an MBA from one of the world's foremost universities could feel pressure, as does one of my girlfriends, to make something of her life.

When our dream doesn't directly build on our own impressive past, will we give ourselves permission to pursue our dream, trusting that our seemingly unrelated skills will eventually come into play?

3) As The Night Journal unfolds, we find that Hannah Bass' legendary past was only part of the story. The Night Journal is the proverbial 'rest of the story.' It is only when Meg learns the whole story, the true story, that Hannah's story becomes a gift.

With the proliferation of blogs, do we risk telling a story that is so glammed up that our posterity will fail to know our true story?

As we give voice to our experiences, they do gain power, but do they influence lives for good or ill? Inspire or oppress?

***
Barbara Torris comments on this post in her blog entry Telling children the truth?, asking some of her own questions. Thank you Barbara!

Comments

Good post, Whitney. It made me think. I even wrote in response on my blog. I do think that the power of the written word is something that we should never take lightly. Was it Benjamin Franklin that said "Never argue with a man that buys his ink by the barrel"?

And for those of us who haven't pursued our potential enough to know what it is, let alone when we've reached it, are we setting a low expectation or even a bad example for our children, whose potential we can see and expect them to use fully? Am I oppressing my children with my outward lack of drive? Do I really expect them to be interested in the journal of my average life?

Permission. It's a tough word for women. Do we give ourselves permission to be successful both in and out side the home? I just had lunch with a friend and we brainstormed about the language we use to describe our availbility within the worforce "I can't becuase I need to get home v. that doesn't work for my schedule, how about 8am tomorrow morning". Do we give ourselves permission and then do we own our decision (v. feeling guilty about the choices we make)...
Great post Whitney!
Stacey

About this blog

When I took a sabbatical from Wall Street to pursue a different dream and help others live theirs, I learned that women in the U.S. may be placated, even pampered, but because we aren't dreaming, we are also desperate and depressed. Drawing on a variety of sources, ranging from academic studies to pop culture, dare to dream encourages us to dream. And then to act on our dreams.